The BBC iPlayer on-demand online TV catch-up service is a year old, but it
cannot rest on its laurels...

Such has been its impact on the media landscape, it’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the BBC’s online TV catch-up service, iPlayer, was launched. It has even won over technophobes with its simple premise of “making the unmissable unmissable”.

British web users have now grown used to catching up on shows at the click of a mouse. In the last 12 months, we have watched more than 180 million TV programmes through iPlayer – on our computers, games consoles, mobile phones and personal media players.

But such is the pace of change that video on-demand technology like BBC iPlayer could be hobbled before it has the chance to show us what it can do. A ruling earlier this month by the Competition Commission against Project Kangaroo, the joint service planned by the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, branded the venture anti-competitive, and could throw the on-demand market into limbo.

The aim of the project was to create a one-stop shop for catch-up TV services in the UK, so that viewers could watch programmes they’d missed using a single portal, rather than having to visit multiple websites and, in some instances, install a variety of software . It would also have acted as an archive of TV show footage, and would, for the most part, have been funded by advertisers and thus free to users .

In other words, it would have created a platform that people of all ages and abilities would have found relatively easy to use. It might even have helped bring about the most urgently needed development in the video on-demand space – piping shows straight from the internet to the TV .

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While iPlayer has been a huge success for the BBC, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the catch-up TV service. Some internet service providers have been less than enthusiastic about the extra traffic iPlayer is bringing to their already hard-pressed networks, and there have been suggestions from some quarters that the BBC should make a financial contribution towards improving the web’s infrastructure to ensure iPlayer doesn’t bring the internet grinding to a halt, and to make sure there’s plenty of spare capacity for future developments.

According to PlusNet, an internet service provider, iPlayer usage accounts for about five per cent of its network capacity, and there has been a 100 per cent increase in the number of customers streaming more than 1GB of data over their PlusNet internet connection since iPlayer launched. While not all of that can be attributed to iPlayer – video-sharing sites such as YouTube and photo-sharing services such as Flickr are also expanding – it’s fair to say that iPlayer has led to a rise in web traffic.

It’s testament to the simplicity of the service. Even those viewers who would never before have considered using video on demand over the internet feel confident with iPlayer .

All of the major broadcasters are working hard to provide digital catch-up services that appeal to their audience. ITV has announced it is revamping its on-demand catch-up TV service, introducing more social media features, such as discussion forums, and placing a greater emphasis on its most popular television shows. Other channels, such as Sky, Five and Channel 4, also offer their own iPlayer-like catch-up platforms. The BBC is not resting on its laurels, either, with the platform’s head, Anthony Rose, promising more social media elements to iPlayer in the coming months, including a facility that allows people to recommend shows to friends.

If, as seems likely, Project Kangaroo falls by the wayside, then it becomes more important than ever for broadcasters to work together sensibly to create catch-up TV platforms that serve viewers first and foremost. There are rumours that the BBC is considering licensing its iPlayer technology to other channels, and that would certainly go some way towards resolving the problem.

But there’s no doubt that the Competition Commission’s decision to put the brakes on Project Kangaroo is a blow for consumers, if perhaps not TV producers worried about monopolies and free enterprise.

“We’re concerned that the loss of rivalry between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, which are normally regarded as competitors, could restrict existing and future competition for video on-demand,” said Peter Freeman, chairman of the Competition Commission. “Whatever benefits viewers gain from this rivalry would be lost.” Insiders, however, suggest that this thinking is akin to claiming that there is no rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola if they are sold in the same supermarket.

Either way, rival broadcasters have to start developing compelling digital offerings if they don’t want to spend the next decade trailing in the BBC’s wake. And that means creating easy-to-use catch-up portals dominated not by the vested interests of marketing men, production companies or executives, but the needs of users. It means enabling users to watch television programmes in their browser window, regardless of what operating system they are using on their computer, as well as on their mobile phones. It means working with manufacturers and other broadcasters to find ways of getting these catch-up services off the computer and into the living room, by making internet-enabled set-top boxes and televisions capable of screening on-demand video straight to the TV.

For now, however, the BBC is floating talk of communities to recommend new programmes to their members, high-definition streaming of popular shows, and greater personalisation. That – and the opening up of the iPlayer platform to rival broadcasters – could yet ensure that the iPlayer’s record of growth is maintained. It’s just as well, though: the BBC needs to make itself as popular as possible with viewers and competitors if it is to safeguard its position.